One Night in Minneapolis by Margie Church - Book Tour - Guest Post - Giveaway - Enter Daily!

Hi lovelies! It gives me great pleasure today to host Margie Church and her new book, “One Night in Minneapolis”!  For other stops on her Goddess Fish Promotions Book Tour, please click on the banner above or any of the images in this post.

Be sure to make it to the end of this post to enter to win a $15 Amazon or Barnes and Noble Gift Card!!  Also, come back daily to interact with Margie and to increase your chances of winning!

Thanks for stopping by!  Wishing you lots of luck in this fabulous giveaway!

One Night in Minneapolis

by Margie Church

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GENRE: Contemporary Erotic Romance

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BLURB:

Marine Major Skylar Landis doesn’t resemble the demure Catholic high school girl Vince Andersen once knew. They’d dated briefly until she patched things up with his nemesis, Ethan Standfeld. After school, she joined the Marines and they’d lost touch.

Their ten year class reunion in Minneapolis brings Skylar face-to-face with Vince, awakening her memories of the past. She asks him to plan a hot, no-strings-attached hook-up to sustain her sexual fantasies while her intelligence unit is deployed to the Middle East. As their adventure unfolds, and he gives her exactly what she needs, Skylar wonders whether she can forget the man who put her desires first and asked for nothing in return.

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EXCERPT ONE:

Skylar walked toward him, the picture of confidence and seduction in a black and white sheath dress that clung to her curves. Her coppery-red hair rested on her right shoulder.

Vince couldn’t wait to run his fingers through the thick, luxurious tresses and

over every inch of Ms. Landis.

She stood in front of him, a demure smile on her lips. “Vince. Finally.”

He took her hands, drawing her into an embrace. “Welcome home.”

“I can’t believe the day is finally here. We’re here.” Her voice held a gentle North Carolina drawl she’d picked up after years living at the U.S. Marine Corps base there.

When he kissed her cheek, citrus and spice scents grabbed his attention. He

whispered into her ear, “You look even more gorgeous than I imagined, and you smell good enough to eat.”

“One can only hope.”

He winked at her. Though it had been ten years since they’d seen each other, the intimate exchanges they’d had and the plans they’d made for this weekend removed the usual dating preliminaries. He brushed the tip of his nose against hers.

Passion smoldered in her green eyes. She didn’t move from his embrace.

He kissed her lips softly, hoping to invoke the same desire unfurling in the pit of his stomach. He noted a slowness in her breathing. Anticipation?

She brought her hand to the back of his head, and slowly moved her fingers in the short hairs there.

Vince held her a little tighter. He teased her lips with the tip of his tongue, silently inviting her to taste him. The sounds of shoppers quieted as only her soft moan reached his ears. He kissed her with strengthening desire, but didn’t rush this first time. Pent-up emotions made his body react like any red-blooded man’s would, especially since she responded with equal passion. If he didn’t end the kiss soon, anyone would be able to see the physical effect she’d had on him. Vince cupped her cheek and gave her one more gentle kiss before stepping back.

He cleared his throat. “You’re lucky we’re in public.”

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GUEST POST:

Happy release day for One Night in Minneapolis! Thank you for hosting me, Fabulous & Brunette! I'm very happy to be at your blog to meet your readers and fans on such a special day. One Night in Minneapolis is my twentieth book.

I want to tell you a little about my journey to becoming a solid writer and editor. First off, I'm a professional writer. I've spent my entire career writing everything from print ads to video scripts. I was first published in the fifth grade when a poem I wrote was published in McCalls magazine – yeah, that dates me big time. When people learned I was a writer, they always asked whether I wrote books. My stock answer was, "No. I'm too lazy."

Then I got laid off and for the first time in my life, had all this time on my hands.

I began writing fan fiction for the Days of Our Lives fandom in 2009 (love EJ Dimera!!!) and found out I had more of knack for storytelling than I thought. I won a fan fiction writing contest and ended up with about half a novel. I loved the story and thought it had great potential. What I didn't have was a talent for fiction writing.

If you follow blogs, I'm sure you've heard how some authors just get lucky. A publisher recognizes they have great potential to go with their story but their skills are pretty wobbly. That was me.

I learned how to write fiction online. These are the deadly sins of new writers.  I had them all:

•       Point of View switching (commonly known as head-hopping) – you know what ALL the characters are thinking because the author hasn't learned how to write in a single point of view. I sometimes felt compelled to switch POVs from paragraph to paragraph. Good lord is that a challenge to fix in your manuscript.

•       Showing not telling – a review for One Night in Minneapolis says the story opens with more telling than showing. The City Nights series has a word count limit and things have to get going. So, guilty on that count. But mastering this skill requires using a lot of words, and vivid descriptions the characters share – not the writer. Emotions come shining through because the dialog and character actions make you feel like you're standing right there with them. That's showing.

•       Passive voice. Get rid of past tense verbs as much as possible. And ditch that, while you're at it.

•       Adverbs….oh, my precious addiction. These are the LY ending words. They are so handy. One beautiful adverb can take the place of ten words. Get over it. Think of adverbs as gasoline and you're fire.

•       Said-isms…this was probably one of the most difficult skills to master. This means you don't use the word, said, in dialog tags very often. Use actions and dialog to tell the reader who's talking.

•       Forgetting about the reader. A few thoughtless phrases, actions, or not enough character depth and the reader will not engage with them and their motivations. The story becomes unbelievable. So, sit back after each significant scene and ask yourself, "What will the reader think?"

My point to all of this is to help you identify common fiction writing challenges that might be keeping you from getting manuscripts accepted or frustrating you when you're working with an editor. I picked two of my worst writing crimes and with each book I wrote, focused on mastering one and improving another. It takes time and serious effort but you'll do it if you really want to.

And boy will your editors love you.

**Contest!** I'm giving away a $15 Amazon gift card during this blog tour to one lucky person. Answer this question or leave a comment to be entered.

If you're a writer, did this post help you and how?

If you're a reader, what do you do when you've come across poorly-edited books?

Thanks again for hosting me, Fabulous & Brunette!

Buy One Night in Minneapolis on Amazon
UK readers can buy it on Amazon-UK

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Margie's blog, Romance with SASS

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Find all my books here

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AUTHOR BIO:

Margie Church writes erotic romance novels with a strong suspense element, in keeping with her moniker: Romance with SASS (Suspense Angst Seductive Sizzle). Never expect the same thing twice in one of her books. She tackles subjects and conflicts that aren't typical in romances. Life is complicated. People are, too. Marrying those concepts makes her work fascinating to read. Margie was 2011 GLBT Author of the Year, and her book, Hard as Teak, was named 2011 GLBT Book of the Year at Loves Romances Café. She is well-known for her BDSM erotic romances as well.

Margie lives in Minnesota, is married, and has two children. Some of her passions are music, poetry, walking on moonlit nights, fishing, and making people laugh.

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CONNECT WITH MARGIE:

Website:

http://authormargiechurch.wordpress.com/

Facebook Personal Friend Page:

http://www.facebook.com/MargieChurch

Facebook Author Fan Page:

https://www.facebook.com/MargieChurchAuthor

Twitter:

http://www.twitter.com/MargaretRChurch

Pinterest:

https://pinterest.com/margiechurch/

Goodreads Author Page:

https://www.goodreads.com/author/show/3064451.Margie_Church

Goodreads Book Page #1:

https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/34512819-one-night-in-minneapolis

Goodreads Book Page #2:

https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/34972239-one-night-in-minneapolis

Amazon Author Page:

http://www.amazon.com/Margie-Church/e/B008H7HO4I

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BOOK BUY LINKS:

Amazon Kindle:

http://amzn.to/2q3XwCQ

Barnes and Noble:

http://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/one-night-in-minneapolis-margie-church/1125902814

Kobo:

https://www.kobo.com/us/en/ebook/one-night-in-minneapolis

Tirgearr Publishing:

http://www.tirgearrpublishing.com/authors/Church_Margie/index.htm

Decadent Publishing:

http://www.decadentpublishing.com/product_info.php?products_id=563&osCsid=u2trcha42aae1ncia4hrngp3h2

Loose Id:

http://www.loose-id.com/authors/erotic-romance-authors-l-p.html?cat=843

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GIVEAWAY INFO:

Margie will be awarding a $15 Amazon/BN GC to a randomly drawn winner via Rafflecopter during the tour.

a Rafflecopter giveaway

**This post contains affiliate links and if clicked and a purchase made I may receive a small commission to help support this blog.  This does not cost you anything, it just helps pay for all those awesome giveaways on here.**

This contest is sponsored by a third party. Fabulous and Brunette is a registered host of Goddess Fish Promotions.  Prizes are given away by the sponsors and not Fabulous and Brunette. The featured author and Goddess Fish Promotions are solely responsible for the giveaway prize.